Sick? Call the Elders, Pt. 3

September 24th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

James 5:15b-16 …and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

The context of James’ instruction in 5:14-18 is prayer for the “sick” within the church. Yet the “sick” who are to summon the elders of the church to pray over them are not those with physical ailments; they are those suffering under spiritual weakness. Such weaknesses are depicted throughout James’ epistle. They are perhaps living in sin—grumbling about their lot instead of rejoicing in their trials (1:2-4), doubting God’s abilities (1:5-8), being led by their sinful temptations (1:12-18), being hearers of God’s word but not doers of it (1:19-27; 2:14-26), showing favoritism to the rich, prejudiced toward others (2:1-13), not controlling their tongues (3:1-12; 4:11-12), lacking wisdom (3:13-18), having become friends with the world and thus becoming spiritual adulteresses (4:1-10), living presumptuously (4:13-17), bilking the poor out of their pay (5:1-6), and swearing presumptuous oaths as if they could control the future (5:12).

Such a one in any or all of these circumstances, upon realizing their sinful state, is to call upon the elders of the church to pray over him or her in the name of Jesus Christ—the Lord. The kicker here is that James says “that the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.” In other words, the weakened Christian is guaranteed deliverance from his spiritual hindrance causing his weakness. Saying that the Lord will “raise him up” implies that the sin that weakened the person has taken him down physically. Once the weak man is healed, he is “raised up.”

In keeping with this, note the additional phrase, “and if [the sick believer] has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” This means that a spiritual weakness can indeed overtake a Christian if they have become entrenched in sinful living. For example, if one commits adultery, he sins against the Lord Himself (Ps. 51:4) and will suffer the consequences of his sin. Worse, if he refuses to confess it and repent of his sin, he will suffer even worse, living without fellowship with God and in turmoil (Ps. 32:3-5). This is likely the kind of sin James has in mind, in addition to all that he addresses in his epistle. In short, unrepentant sin can destroy a person’s life, even a Christian. This reminds of the situation Jesus dealt with in Matthew 9:1-8 (cf. Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26) with the paralytic. When Jesus forgave the man’s sins, he was able to walk again.

The term for “forgive” (Gr. aphiēmi) means “to send away.” David wrote, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12). And once the sin that has brought on the spiritual weakness has been confessed and forgiven, it is sent away. Paul says, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15; cf. Jer. 31:34).

No wonder James 5:16 concludes, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” Confession of sins to “one another” in addition to praying for “one another” results in healing. And it does not take an entire church to pray for a weak Christian. It only takes “a righteous man.” What does it mean to be “righteous” (Gr. dikaios)? In and of itself, the term means to act morally and justly. But to be a righteous man is impossible, for “there is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10; cf. Ps. 14:1-3). Righteousness is granted, however, by God when we trust in Christ (Rom. 3:21-31). When we do, God declares us righteous. So who is righteous but he who trusts in Jesus Christ! Such a one praying for us “can accomplish much.”

Food For Thought
There is an absurdity in believing that James is actually referring to physical illness, namely that when we fall ill, we are to first call for the elders of our church to pray over us for healing. This has been tried on too many occasions throughout the centuries, and aside from a few wonderful stories of God’s grace, the James’ guarantee is anything but. Now if James were guaranteeing the healing of physical ailments, no sick Christian would ever remain sick and would thus theoretically never die! This is of course absurd, and it is why “sick” must be translated as spiritually “weak.” In such cases, the “effective” prayer of just one righteous person—one true Christian, not two or more gathered—“can accomplish much.”